The First Seal
by Artemisdesari
Summary: Spoilers for 4.16. "And it was written that the first seal......" Short fic from Alistair's pov.


_This has probably already been done and I am _very_ behind the times, but I was in the shower and this came to me (I seem to get most of my ideas in the shower, I have no clue why) But I had this thought, what if "when a righteous man sheds blood in hell" didn't mean the blood of others, but his own. So I thought about it and managed to think all of this up _in_ said shower and get it all written down within fifteen minutes of getting out. It's a bit random, a bit drabbly and absolutely nothing to do with The Hand of Sorrow Verse (next chapter will be up tomorrow evening)._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, I will never own them and if I did then I would be keeping them all to myself. Dialogue in **bold/italics** is lifted straight from On The Head of a Pin._

The First Seal.

**"_And it was written that the first seal will be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell."_**

From the outset, Alistair had believed that John Winchester was the righteous man that they so sought, the man who would break the first seal and allow them to free their father from his eternal prison. When he was delivered to the chief torturer of the endless pit, Alistair had felt the shrivelled, blackened phantasm of the organ that had once been referred to as his heart swell with, if not joy, then just a little less in the way of evil. Here was the very thing that he had been waiting for.

**"_And it was written that the first seal will be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell."_**

When the first drop of John's blood fell from the first wound that Alistair inflicted, a wound inflicted almost lovingly upon the human soul, he had almost expected the reaction of the world to be great, to hear claps of thunder and the horns of angry angels as they descended upon Hell to stop him. Nothing happened, nothing changed. The seal remained unbroken and Alistair reasoned that it had simply not been enough, so he cut and he sliced and he diced and still nothing was any different, even after John finally began to scream, nothing changed and Alistair began to wonder if there was something that they were doing wrong, perhaps it was not simply John's blood that had to be shed, perhaps John also had to shed the blood of others too.

**"_And it was written that the first seal will be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell."_**

For one hundred years he cut and he sliced and he offered a respite, offered an end to it, if John would just take up the blade, just cut into another. For one hundred years, the Winchester Patriarch refused and Alistair continued to cut and to slice and to wait for the day that Azazel opened the gate and released Lillith upon the world so that as soon as he was successful the real work could begin. At the end of the one hundred years Azazel succeeded and as Lillith passed by the rack, she took John with her, passing on the whisper that another had been found, another who was weaker and filled with less hate than this one, one who could be broken with far more ease.

**"_And it was written that the first seal will be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell."_**

One hundred and twenty years he waited, one hundred and twenty years that passed as a mere trifle to him, he who was so accustomed to being patient, to taking his time, and for all those years he honed his blade, he practised new techniques, took pleasure in the screams of souls as he waited.

**"_And it was written that the first seal will be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell."_**

When Dean Winchester arrived, Alistair started upon him with relish, taking care in his work, drawing out the loudest screams he could, making Dean suffer in ways that he had never tried with John, saw the boy's defiance break a little more with each cut and slice and dice, with each carve of bone and tear of flesh. So absorbed was he in his work, in tempting Dean from the rack, that he did not sense, did not hear, the first delicate crack form in the shields of the first seal or the angry calls of angels as they battled against the gates. He did not notice the way that the crack grew wider day by day, week by week, year by year, until, finally, the day Dean stepped off the rack, it split wide open.

**"_And it was written that the first seal will be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell. And as he breaks so shall it break."_**

_Reviews are little Castiels that fly over our heads and mini Deans under the bed, a small Sam in hand and a tiny John by the chair, a review can show how much you care._

_Artemis_


End file.
